


fight back

by jasminemai



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, F/M, spec fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-10 22:37:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15959018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasminemai/pseuds/jasminemai
Summary: She sees him for the first time in five months with a bruised knuckles and a gaping head wound, and he honestly doesn't look much better.spec fic based on the promo pictures released today/





	fight back

**Author's Note:**

> Promo pics with Oliver and Felicity interacting in 7x01 is literally the best fuel a writer needs. 
> 
> And before anyone asks, there will 100% be a follow up to this, but I've gotta get back and study now.

She’d always known the world worked in mysterious ways. When Cooper had ‘died’ and she’d changed her hair and her style and moved to Starling, she’d felt like the universe was guiding her to something. At the time she hadn’t known what, and for three years she’d worked as tech support, getting rid of porn off of executive’s computers and fixing the myriad of technical issues QC had.

And then he’d walked into her office with a bullet ridden laptop and she fell.

Fell in love, absolutely.

Fell down the rabbit hole of criminal activity she’d been hiding way from for the past three years? Undoubtedly.

Time and time again she and Oliver have been torn apart only to be brought back together again. Fate? Destiny? Luck? Hard work and determination? All elements of it, she’s sure. But love. Love for their city, for their team, for each other and William. That had been motivation, it had been their strength.

So where was her strength now, sitting rather impatiently in the waiting room as Dig warned her husband that Diaz’s men had found her and William, that’s he attacked and her quick thinking was the only reason they weren’t captured or killed.

She’d had enough time to think. She’d had enough time to talk it through and have conversations with herself about what she’d say to the second and third most important people in her life. Diggle, well, how could she hate her best friend and brother for doing what his best friend and her husband had asked him to do? How could she resent him for leaving her alone in a town with a boy who had lost both of his parents within the space of a year when it had been in their best interests? For their safety?

She supposes the new identity, the new hair, the new clothes were all meant to make her feel safe. Like she would be able to live a trouble free, Diaz free life. No one told her that the lack of wedding band on her left hand would weigh her entire body down, would make her feel like she was drowning, that she was missing a piece of her soul. She supposes that it’s not the ring she misses, it’s the meaning behind the ring. A part of her, the part that had fought so hard against their marriage in the first place is proudly declaring that they were right all along. Oliver would leave and would never come back.

The more romantic side of her personality however was still determined that she should get her happy ending, even if she had to break him out of jail in the process.

“Felicity?” Her hands are shaking, she notices, as Diggle’s voice cut through the sound of her own thoughts. “They’re bringing Oliver in to talk to you now.”

She barely manages to contain her anger at his words, instead standing tall, tucking her hair, it’s still pink and she hates it, behind her ear and brushing past Diggle without another word. She knows where she’s going. Her first night in Hope Springs had perhaps been her worst. Sleep hadn’t come to her or William so she moved the TV into her bedroom, grabbed some popcorn and they watched all the shows that a life in Star City had prevented them from being able to watch. Somewhere close to three am she’d had enough of wondering and hacked into the mainframe for Slabside, determined to find the blueprints and her husband’s records. Ever since she’d spent every night memorising every entrance and exit, every nook and cranny that they could use in case they needed to break Oliver out of prison against his wishes.

She sits down in the booth, flashes of the last time she was in this situation bombard her as she waits for Oliver. She doesn’t touch the phone that will let her hear her husband’s voice for the first time. She doesn’t even know if she wants to talk to him right now. The rage she felt when she realised someone was breaking into her apartment to attack her and William hasn’t dissipated in the last forty-eight hours. Instead, having only her thirteen-year old son to talk to had meant that the anger had simply been bottled away in a box to be unleashed in the privacy of a bathroom or bedroom where no one could see her break apart.

And then she sees her husband for the first time in five months as he sits down across from her, bulletproof glass blocking them from touching or talking. She’s not sure which of them looks worse. Sure she’s got a nasty bruise forming on her forehead and her knuckles are a bit battered after trying to fight off her attackers, but Oliver isn’t any better. His face looks like the human version of a punching bag and his fair and that thing on his face. She almost doesn’t recognise her own husband.

But it’s the eyes that get to her the most. She knows him better than anyone, almost better than she knows herself. She knows why he made the decision that he did, she knows that he loves her and William more than anything in the world and she _knows_ that the last five months have broken him in a way she’s seen before but still manages to be worse than anything they’ve been through together.

And maybe that’s the trick. They didn’t fight this together, she fought her attackers and he didn’t fight his.

His lips are moving, she finally notices once she can pull her eyes off of his. He’s talking into the phone, leaning forward his hands reaching out to hers. She’d known that he didn’t have his ring, she had it on a chain hidden deep within her bags that she’d packed. But seeing his empty hand _hurt._

Without any thought, she reaches out to him as well, her fingers skimming the glass keeping them apart. In that moment she just wants to _touch_ him. In that moment her anger is gone, her fear, the hurt and pain and awfulness that the last few days have caused. None of that matters apart from the fact that her husband is sitting down across from her.

His lips are still moving and he waves the phone a little, prompting her to pick up her own phone.

_“Are you okay?”_

She stares at him surprised, still cataloguing all of the cuts and bruises and scars she’s sure he has. “Are you?”

“This isn’t about me.”

“But it’s about our family.”

_“Felicity.”_

There’s always been something about the way he’s said her name, the way he break it into syllables, the way he says it like it’s his favourite word in the world, the love he’s always been able to infuse into it. Once it made her weak at the knees, made her swoon, made her realise that whatever feelings were between them were real. Then, later, once they’d had their night together the way he said her name warmed her entire body, infused it with love and happiness and safety. When she’d walked away, when they were on pause, seeing other people and trying to sort their own lives out, the way he said her name made her heart ache. But now when he says it, after everything that’s happened to her and to him and to their family, it makes her angry. Like, smash their entire kitchen in a rage type angry. The type of angry Oliver was after he saw her kiss Ray that night all those years ago. The type of anger, and she supposes desperation, that lead her to confronting Ra’s.

Right now, she doesn’t want to be placated, she doesn’t want a hand to hold, she wants answers, she wants the truth, she wants the happily ever after she was promised when she said _I do_ all those months ago.

“I had a dream the other night, that Diaz found you and attacked you.”

“Maybe that magic you used to save the city from Darhk made you a seer as well.” There’s a flash of something across Oliver’s face that she can’t quite determine. “I don’t know how he found us, but I think there might be a leak at ARGUS. I’ve decided that William and I are going to move back to Star City.”

“It’s not safe there for you Felicity that’s why you were put in witness protection in the first place,” Oliver reminds her, his voice tight, controlled. She knows that the anger that she feels is nothing compared to the anger Oliver is experiencing right now. He’d killed the Count for her, to protect her. She knew what his instincts were when it came to hers and William’s safety.

“And look what being in witness protection’s done for me Oliver. I didn’t get this beating because I fell down some stairs. Someone broke into my house and attacked me, Oliver. They wanted to kill me and take William. So please, remind me again what good being in witness protection has done for us.”

“I’m sorry.”

She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t have anything to say. Her father apologised for leaving and yet he still left without a word. Oliver himself had spent the better part of a year repenting for not telling her about William and yet he still went ahead and made unilateral decisions for their family. She hates the fact that she was right all along.

“How’s William?”

“As good as a kid who lost both his parents in the space of a year can be when he has to live with a relative stranger. It’s certainly been a bonding experience.” At her words, Oliver shuts down, like has so many times before this. Back then she’d have reached out to him, comforted him, and loved him. Now she’s tired and her entire body is aching and she’s done with everything. For the first time in six years she hates him. And she hates that.

She always forgets that for as well as she knows him, he knows her just as well. He can tell her mood from the colour lipstick she wears, whether she wears flats or heels, whether she has black coffee or a stupid Starbucks concoction. He can read her just as well as she can read him. She can see his heart break, the last little spark of her Oliver leaving his eyes as he shuts down from her.

She doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t know what to say. She shouldn’t even be here without William. She should have had her gaping head wound covered and she should have washed the blood off her knuckles. She should have done so many things but she just feels numb. Numb and angry and a million other emotions that aren’t making this reunion so impossible.

“I’ll bring him the next time I come, okay?” She offers an olive branch.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Because you look like you’ve had the crap kicked out of you?” He doesn’t answer so she assumes it’s a yes. “Why haven’t you been fighting back? You’re the most skilled fighter I know and you’re saying that you can’t take the guys you’ve already put behind bars?”

“They’ve been threatening you,” Oliver admits. “Said if I didn’t behave they’d find you and hurt you.”

“Well Diaz has that covered so you have nothing to worry about.”

“I have everything to worry about Felicity. Star City isn’t safe for you and William. You’re married to the Green Arrow, you’ll have a target on your back for the rest of your lives.”

“So I have to put my life aside because you wanted to do the noble thing and protect us? I have a life outside of this team Oliver, I have a company, and William cannot spend the rest of his life on the run. We’re going back to Star City.” The childish side of her wants to point and laugh and remind Oliver that this is exactly what he’s been doing for the last six years. But the other part, the one who has to be a parent and a wife and a leader resists.

He must see the amusement though, because his lips twitch into a half of a half-smile. “How hard is it for you not say I told you so?”

“Soooo hard,” she replies. “Sorry.”

“I think at this stage we’ve established that I should listen to you and it’s my own fault when I don’t.”

“Ya think?” She replies sarcastically. Then she sighs. “I’ve missed hearing your voice.”

“I’ve missed you and William so much.” His voice cracks and he closes his eyes. “A part of me doesn’t want you to leave, for us to just stay on the phone for as long as possible. The other part of me never wants you to see me like this again.”

“I know the feeling,” she whispers, leaning forward on her elbows, both hands clutching the phone. “I wanted to hate you, to resent you for everything that’s happened. But then I see something green and it reminds me of that green blanket we had in our apartment, or William does something and it’s like looking at this younger version of you and it reminds me of how much I _miss you_.”

They lapse into silence, understanding passing between them.

“Promise me something?” she asks, her voice cracking and her eyes welling with tears. “And I mean, swear on my life and on William’s life that you do what I ask. Otherwise I’m done, Oliver. I love you, I love our life, I want a future with you, but I won’t wait around forever. It’s not healthy it’s not right, it’s not good for us or William.” She can feel her heartbreaking. She hates that she’s giving him this ultimatum.

“What is it?”

“I need you to fight back.”

 


End file.
